Ball games have been around for thousands of years. Cuju, the predecessor to modern association football, was played in China over two thousand years ago. Shrovetide Football and Caid (similar to Gaelic football) were played in Europe over five hundred years ago. Over the past few centuries, new games have been developed which model after those earlier games as well as their modern counterparts, often in an attempt to provide games that are more enjoyable and rewarding to both players and spectators alike.
Some of the newer games have been developed to provide simplified rules so that even non-professional players/recreational players can understand and participate in the game. Others have been developed to provide more tactical depth and to require more sophistication so that they are most suited for participation by professional players. Some of these games provide a refined and/or redesigned pitch in order to enhance the unpredictability and excitement of the game, in contrast to the often codified dimensions and shapes of previously used playing fields (See U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,482,157, 5,207,433, and 8,435,142; and U.S. Patent Application Publication Nos. 2006/0189416 and 2007/0072702). However, each of these newer games lacks certain structural and functional features which may explain why none of these newer games have thus far captured the attention and admiration of large masses of people.